Innovative Solutions out of Poverty

Our Board members and a few staff with Carmen outside her home which she has been able to invest in with a Home Improvement Loan

Last month, Adelante’s Board got a chance to visit a few clients of ours outside of La Ceiba. Not only did they get a glimpse into the lives of our clients, they also got a chance to make a few purchases for themselves! The trip started with a visit to Carmen’s home, where she produces delicious sweet breads and pastries that her husband later carries out to the market. Having already tried her pan de piña on a previous visit, I warned a few members ahead of time that it would be hard to buy just one. Carmen’s home improvement project continues to be a work in progress, and our Board marveled at how well she is able to manage her business from such a small working space.

Filena makes these decorative flowers out of recycled aluminum cans to then sell for a profit.

After leaving with plenty of fresh breads, several members joked about what other products they would get to buy at the next client’s home. Fortunately for them, Filena is one of our most creative clients. Filena engages in several business activities which she carries out from her home in a rural area outside of the city. She makes and sells flowers made from recycled aluminum cans, jewelry and crocheted clothing and decorations for the home.

Filena invests her loans in purchasing her materials and is always hard at work to create beautiful pieces. Her determination is paying off for her, as she is making progress in improving her family’s standard of living. She is now a recipient of Adelante’s Home Improvement Loan product for about $1,490. Her creative style made for great souvenirs for our Board Members, giving her a boost in her day’s profits. With such numerous skills, I was shockedd to learn that Filena’s talents are all self-taught, developed on her own through perseverance and commitment to improving her family’s standard of living. Thanks to the business loans that Filena has taken out with Adelante over the years along with assemblies every two weeks, she has been able to expand upon her business ideas to handle a much larger loan than an average Adelante loan.

Blanca shows off earrings and other jewelry that she makes from home.

Our last client visit of the day followed the trend of empowered women producing goods from their homes. Blanca makes and sells jewelry, crochet and flower arrangements at home outside of Jutiapa, presenting our Board members with another souveneir opportunity. Each of these three women have worked hard to identify and develop their own skills to get their families ahead.

This Friday is International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate all that women are, the advances we have made and what we need to continue moving forward. On March 8, Adelante will be celebrating Carmen, Filena, Blanca and the thousands of other women who have taken on the challenge of leaving poverty behind by investing in their own businesses. Their innovative solutions in the face of poverty are an inspiration to everyone at Adelante.

Are you interested in supporting this content, as well as taking on grant research and writing responsibilities and campaign development as our Development Intern? Check out our posting here and apply!

Erika: One New Client’s Bright Young Daughter

Erika models the necklace she made after the first day of the workshop.

I met Erika during our Jewelry Making Workshop in Intibucá during October, our most recent offering from our Product Innovation Workshops. At nine years old, Erika was the oldest daughter of a client at the workshop. As the workshop got started, Erika and her mother Rosa sat with the other women who had attended the first workshop, about a third of those in attendance. While her mother and the others at her table picked out new materials to work with and the newcomers got started with their tools, Erika reviewed the beads and material available and observed her mom and the others as they got to work. Erika’s excellent grades and hard work in school made it possible for her to miss two days so that she could accompany her mom to the workshop and learn how to make jewelry with her.

With Erika’s help, Dulce Maria is able to balance learning a new skill with caring for her son. By selling jewelry, Dulce Maria will be able to earn more money and better support her family.

While shy at first, Erika gradually began to talk to the other clients, and eventually became comfortable with me. As she adjusted to the setting at the workshop, Erika started to stray farther from her mom’s side, taking on multiple roles. In addition to making necklaces and earrings at Rosa’s side, Erika helped the other mothers out by acting as babysitter for the younger kids so they could focus on the workshop, cheered on clients who were having trouble with the tools and even helped me out by taking a few pictures. Although she enjoys helping her mother and coming up with new jewelry designs, Erika’s favorite class is math and she wants to be a teacher when she grows up. With her incredible ability to learn, she also revealed a natural teaching ability. Ana is a new client with Adelante and this was her first workshop. While she struggled with the tools, Erika came over to give her some encouragement, telling her, “You just have to remember to keep your hands still. I know you can do it!”. With Erika’s help, Ana learned to relax a little bit and was proud to show me the bracelet she had finally made when I returned to her work station. 

Maria (left) helps Erika become comfortable with the jewelry tools, while her mother looks on.

During the two day workshop, I got a chance to meet several inspring clients but was most deeply impacted by the potential that Erika had shown. Rosa tells me that they live in a somewhat isolated area in the mountains outside of La Esperanza and didn’t have electricity until just four years ago. Like her daughter, she also values education and had worked hard for years so that she could finish her high school degree just a couple years ago, while simultaneously raising her two children. Her economic responsibilities also extend to her mother who has become very sick and has lost the ability to talk. To help her husband cover their family’s expenses, Rosa makes tacos, enchiladas and tamales to sell outside the local soccer field during games every Sunday. Since the first Jewelry Workshop, she has begun to implement this new business and has now taken out her second Adelante loan, a much larger loan than her first–about $370 compared to $165. This larger investment signals to me that her new business venture has taken off well. With Erika’s ambition, Rosa’s new business and both of their hard work, Rosa will see her daughter grow up with greater opportunities than she was offered as a young woman. Like so many of our other clients, Rosa knows that it is up to her to shape the future for her children.

Rosa and Erika stand proudly to accept Rosa’s Workshop Certificate. At the end of the day Rosa told me, “And what she doesn’t know yet, I’ll teach her!”

Adelante and our clients in Intibucá are very appreciative of the support brought forth by Women’s Empowerment International. Without their funding and support, these workshops would not be possible. 

Making a Difference on Giving Tuesday

#GivingTuesday is a movement started up to promote charitable donations following the excess shopping we indulge in over the course of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Last Thursday we all gave thanks for what we have in our life. My own Thanksgiving this year was less traditional than usual but still gave me the opportunity to reflect on what I am thankful for.

As the only American sitting at a table with new friends from Switzerland, Germany, Iran and Austria last Thursday, they were all eager to know what I was thankful for. Although I was not able to be with my family at home in the United States eating turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and my grandma’s famous cavatelli, I knew I had a lot to be grateful for.

Join us today on Giving Tuesday and support the women that I am lucky to meet on a regular basis across eight Honduran departments: Atlántida, Islas de la Bahía, Cortés, Colón, Yoro, La Paz, Intibucá and Choluteca. Donate here and leave your comments below to tell us what you’re thankful for.

Heavy Rains and Hurricanes’ Impacts in Honduras and New York

Marta with her 22 year old daughter and 3 year old granddaughter

Marta Rosa is a new client from Choluteca on her first loan cycle. She became a part of Adelante to increase production of enchiladas and tacos that she makes and sells alongside her 22 year old daughter. Although Marta has been doing this for many years, last October’s heavy rains left her and her family homeless. Her two sons have not been able to secure steady jobs, being forced to settle for seasonal agricultural employment.

The devastating rains of last year remind us of why Adelante began in the first place—in response to the devastation left by Hurricane Mitch. However, for me, a native New Yorker, her story makes me reflect on the damage just recently left behind by Hurricane Sandy and last year’s Hurricane Irene. I was thankful to see Hurricane Sandy pass by a few weeks ago without leaving any or minimal damage to my own family and friends. Last year, my family was not so lucky.

I was in Quito, Ecuador on orientation last August when I first heard about a hurricane heading toward New York but the news I had read seemed to predict greater problems for New York City and other downstate areas than where my family lives outside of the capital of Albany. After getting to Guayaquil, where I would be studying during the fall semester of my senior year, I got a call from my parents. Although New York City had been spared much predicted damage, parts of Upstate New York and Vermont were not so lucky.

After losing power the day before, my family had been woken by police at their door around 1:00 am to evacuate their home in late August. They loaded what they could into their car but most of my belongings that I had left while I was abroad remained in the basement. In the rush of moving out of my apartment and packing for my semester abroad, I was left with little time to label or organize the boxes I was leaving behind. For the next two months, my parents stayed with family and received the support of members of the community who were not affected.

Down the street from my house on one side is a lake where I had learned to swim and on the other side, a river where I watched the Village of Scotia water ski shows and fireworks as a child. The rains that hit my town resulted in the overflow of the Gilboa Dam, flooding from the lake and river into my town and water eventually breaking through the foundation of my house. By the time I arrived back from Ecuador, the house was almost done with repairs and my parents had been able to resume their normal lives.

The devastation that my family and others were faced with was also often met with community support and generosity. When I spoke with Marta, many things raced through my mind. In her rural community, about an hour out from the closest city, were police officers able to be effectively assisting with evacuations? Even if they could evacuate people from areas in danger, would they all have had somewhere to go? Unlike my parents, she certainly did not have flood insurance to cover at least some of the costs. Moreover, Marta’s neighbors do not have the same capacity to support each other during these disasters that my family’s community does.

Marta has been renting this house from a neighbor since she lost her home in the floods last October. She hopes that her business will bring her the profits she needs to buy a new home in the future.

After losing her home, she was able to move into a rental owned by a neighbor, where she lives with her three children all in their 20s and her three year old granddaughter. Her husband passed away 15 years ago so they must all work together to cover their household expenses, which now include the cost of renting and will soon include her granddaughter’s school expenses. Her two sons both work in agriculture, typically finding work during harvest season. During other times of the year, it is harder for them to find work, making Marta’s business even more vital to the well-being of her family.

Marta and her 22 year old daughter run their business together making and selling tacos and enchiladas in the community. They share responsibilities in making the food, and her daughter goes out to sell their food while she cares for her granddaughter. After relocating and reestablishing their business after last year’s rains, they are starting to build up a new clientele. Marta is proud of the work she and daughter do, saying, “She goes out everyday to sell the food we make and now those who have tried it love it and go looking for her to buy more!”

Marta’s dream is to someday have a home that she can call her own again. In July she took out her first loan for $166. She hopes that with the new investment, she will be able to grow the business that she and her daughter have developed together and eventually be able to own her own home again.

Marta’s granddaughter, aged 3, poses for the camera while her mom and grandmother make tortillas.

Microfinance Under Fire

Published March 21st, 2011 in the New York Times’ social change blog “Fixes”

Muhammad Yunus, center, outside the high court building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on March 6 where he contested the government’s decision to remove him from his post in Grameen Bank.

At Fixes, our focus is typically on implementing new or underutilized ideas to help those in need. But sometimes it’s just as important to protect institutions that are already working well. Which is why I’m writing today about the Grameen Bank, the Bangladeshi organization that won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, along with its founder Muhammad Yunus, for its work extending microloans to some of the world’s poorest, and has been crucial in global efforts to lift millions of people out of poverty.

Both the bank and Yunus, have come under attack by the government of Bangladesh and its prime minister, Sheikh Hasina Wazed. It has taken 35 years of painstaking effort to build Grameen into a world-class institution that serves millions of poor people. That progress could be lost if the country’s leaders fail to appreciate what makes the Grameen Bank work.

Anyone who cares about international development, microfinance or social entrepreneurship should pay attention. The Grameen Bank is not just the largest microlender in the world, with 8.4 million borrowers (most of them women villagers) who received more than $1 billion in loans last year, it is the flagship enterprise in an industry that, in 2009, served 128 million of the world’s poorest families. It is also a leading example and inspiration for millions of citizen-led organizations that have been established in recent decades to address social problems that governments have failed to solve.

Yunus, the founder of the bank, is an entrepreneurial figure cut from the same cloth as Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple. He has devoted himself since the 1970s to demonstrating, institutionalizing and spreading microfinance. Recently, the government issued ordersthat Yunus is to be removed from his post as managing director of the bank. Yunus has taken the case to Bangladesh’s Supreme Court.

Government officials initially seized on a Norwegian documentary that accused Yunus of improperly diverting funds in 1996 that had been donated by the country’s aid agency. The Norwegian government investigated and found that, while funds were transferred internally from one Grameen-owned affiliate to another, there was no indication that the funds were misused. Since then, government officials have engaged in attacks against Yunus and challenged the work of all microlenders in Bangladesh.

Legally, the government owns 25 percent of Grameen and has the right to appoint a quarter of its board members, including its chairperson. In practical terms, however, the government has little justification to intercede in the bank’s operations. Today, of the Grameen Bank’s paid-up share capital, only 3.5 percent comes from the Bangladeshi government. It is the bank’s borrowers who are its majority owners. They control 75 percent of the board seats and they have supplied 96.5 percent of the paid up share capital. And it’s the savings of villagers — about $1.5 billion — that now finances the bank’s activities and growth.

Nevertheless, the government is proceeding to remove Yunus against the objections of its majority owners and will probably succeed. The stated reason is hollow: Yunus, who is 70, is over the mandatory retirement age in government banks.

Talking to strangers

Adelante clients are fantastic, hard working women with amazing life stories! They endure challenges life throws at them with happiness and optimism. When I visit an assembly, I always wonder how all these amazing women ended up together. This is Angela’s story.

Angela Amaya

Angela Amaya is a very kind and timid lady. She is 64-years old.  She is married with one child and two grandchildren. Angela has a prosperous business in her home, which allows her to stay home and help her daughter by taking care for her grandchildren while their mother works. But life has not always been this easy for Angela.

Angela lives in Orica, a community in the department of Colon. Orica is a very rural community without stores, supermarkets, schools or hospitals, and most of the houses are sparsely located. The closest town with these commodities is Tocoa, which is a thirty minute bus ride. Since most people in Orica do not have cars, they depend on others for transportation.

Before having a business at home, Angela sold used clothing in her community, walking from house to house to sell her merchandise. She would also take the bus to visit other communities like hers to sell her products. She used to work extremely hard for minimal profit.  Angela also provided credit to many people in her community, which ultimately led to the bankruptcy of her clothing resale business.

One day, as she was taking the bus to Tocoa, a young woman, Mercedes, sat next to her. They swapped stories of their current jobs – Angela’s frustrations and Mercedes’ success.  Mercedes told Angela about her role as a credit officer for the Adelante Foundation and invited her to come to the next assembly in two weeks. The assembly was close to Angela’s community and she agreed to come.

Sacrificing Microcredit for Megaprofits

By MUHAMMAD YUNUS

Muhammad Yunus

Published January 14, 2011 in the New York Times

Dhaka, Bangladesh

In the 1970s, when I began working here on what would eventually be called “microcredit,” one of my goals was to eliminate the presence of loan sharks who grow rich by preying on the poor. In 1983, I founded Grameen Bank to provide small loans that people, especially poor women, could use to bring themselves out of poverty. At that time, I never imagined that one day microcredit would give rise to its own breed of loan sharks.

But it has. And as a result, many borrowers in India have been defaulting on their microloans, which could then result in lenders being driven out of business. India’s crisis points to a clear need to get microcredit back on track.

Troubles with microcredit began around 2005, when many lenders started looking for ways to make a profit on the loans by shifting from their status as nonprofit organizations to commercial enterprises. In 2007, Compartamos, a Mexican bank, became Latin America’s first microcredit bank to go public. And this past August, SKS Microfinance, the largest bank of its kind in India, raised $358 million in an initial public offering.

To ensure that the small loans would be profitable for their shareholders, such banks needed to raise interest rates and engage in aggressive marketing and loan collection. The kind of empathy that had once been shown toward borrowers when the lenders were nonprofits disappeared. The people whom microcredit was supposed to help were being harmed. In India, borrowers came to believe lenders were taking advantage of them, and stopped repaying their loans.

Our Credit Officers

Part of the credit officers of Tocoa receiving a workshop.

As a supporter of Adelante, you may not be aware of the important role credit officers play in our operations. Credit officers have many responsibilities. They are in charge of assisting the biweekly assemblies and drafting the meeting report with the assemblies’ board. They are also in charge of managing and handling the loan pool that is assigned to them, granting and declining loans, recovering and collecting loan payments, follow up on clients that have bad debt, doing credit evaluations with each assemblies credit committee, delivering loan and savings disbursements, giving educational lessons on business topics, solving problems within the assemblies whenever they arise, making credit renovations when the clients need them, marketing in new markets to obtain new clients and form new assemblies, and so much more.

Adelante currently employs seventeen Hondurans for the role of credit officer. Trying to convey just how much this small group of Hondurans gives to Adelante’s program is very hard.

Credit officers and the motorcycles they use to get to their clients.

This brave and admirable group gives their best efforts to help us achieve our goals and stay true to Adelante’s mission: to improve the standard of living for extremely poor women and their families in rural Honduras. To reach the communities Adelante serves, which are mostly isolated and rural, the credit officers go to great efforts. In an underdeveloped country like Honduras, the simplest of things, such as getting from one community to the next, can require arduous work. To help the Adelante supporters understand just how much work this really requires, the biggest difficulties and obstacles credit officers face are listed below:

The Benefactors of Our Program

The Benefactors of Our Program

Upon entering an assembly, the event at which Adelante’s loan recipients gather for educational purposes, I immediately notice the loan recipient’s children, who accompany their mothers to this communal event. They look too innocent to be carrying the weight of poverty on their shoulders. Poverty, however, doesn’t discriminate and anyone can be victimized by it. I look at them, and I wonder: Did this child eat breakfast? Does she know how to read? Why is she here and not in school? Do they even have a school in this community?

Seeing such realities in person made me wonder what the actual situation of these children was in terms of development indicators, such as: Average schooling years, infant mortality rate, access to health services, etc.  The information I found indicated what I already assumed to be true. The only difference was that now I had the actual statistics from a reliable source to back my assumptions. The reality of most children in Honduras is truly sad. Although the government, international organizations, and non-profit organizations have made progress in alleviating the situation of more than two thirds of the population that lives below the poverty line, widespread poverty is still the biggest problem in Honduras. The Adelante Foundation is doing its part by helping the women of rural Honduras work their way out of poverty through microloans to start small businesses and indirectly benefiting these women’s children. Other organizations such as UNICEF work directly with the government to improve laws and policies on social spending. There are also many non-profit organizations that work with the children directly. Despite the work done by all these organizations and the improvements that have been achieved, some issues persist and are even worsening.

Illiteracy is one of the issues that continues to haunt children. In Honduras, something as basic and essential as receiving an education is a huge challenge for them. The average number of years of schooling stands at only 4.3 in rural areas and seven in urban areas. The main causes of these low numbers lie

in inadequate teachers’ competencies, scarcity of teaching materials, poor physical learning environments and limited interaction between schools and communities. In rural and indigenous areas, the curricula, materials and teaching methods are not adapted to the cultural context. [1] Some children do not even get a chance to go to school at all because there are not any schools in their community. Besides not being able to receive an adequate education, these children do not fully enjoy their childhood because they are forced to leave the schools and the playground at an early age and start working to increase their family income. Those that are lucky to find jobs, work. Those that don’t, go to the streets to beg for money.

Another issue a great number of children in Honduras face is the threat of sexual exploitation and trafficking. Sex tourism seems to be one of the only parts of the Honduran economic sectors that is booming. At various times throughout the year, one can find in the local newspapers the usual story of a foreigner found in a hotel room with a number of children. Foreigners, though, are not the only ones that contribute to this horrific danger. Many Hondurans that are involved with gangs and drug trafficking have now become interested in this new line of commerce and have begun to invest in it.

And as if these issues were not enough to deal with, these children do it all on an empty stomach, without receiving the adequate number of daily nutrients or without receiving any sort of medical attention. In recent years, chronic malnutrition has decreased from 38 per cent to 25 per cent. It remains high, however, due to limited availability of food, inadequate nutritional practices and the impact of disease. Over one-third of infants are malnourished. To make matters worse, some 18 per cent of the population has no access to basic health services, 10 per cent of the population lacks access to safe water and one-third of the population lacks access to sanitation. As a result of this, infant, under-five and maternal mortality rates remain stubbornly high. [2] Infant malnutrition completes the vicious cycle of poverty and underdevelopment, binding together and serving as a direct root cause of all the rest of harsh realities faced by these people.

Sex tourism, child labor exploitation, child trafficking, illiteracy, chronic malnutrition, no access to basic health services, and high infant mortality rates are only some of the issues the Honduran children deal with on a day to day basis. I must make note however, that when I say Honduran children I am excluding, for the purpose of this article and not any type of bias, the children of the middle and upper classes that control with great authority the greater part of the Honduran economy. This information applies only to the children of that bigger group, the faceless mass that accounts for 70% of Honduran population that lives below the poverty line. This leaves no doubt that the work Adelante and similar institutions are doing in Honduras is greatly needed. It is motivating to see that there have been some improvements in social expenditures on behalf of the children and that some numbers, such as children who suffer from chronic malnutrition, have decreased. But there is still much to be done. These children are the future of this country. They are the main benefactors of our efforts. As a Honduran myself, I cannot tolerate to see my compatriots face such arduous struggles. Something must be done, and thankfully much is being done by the Adelante Foundation and other pro-poor organizations to alleviate the strain of extreme poverty. As my personal mission, I seek to do everything within reach to give our nation’s poor a fighting chance, while still offering a route to their own independent realization of a worthwhile life.

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[1] Source: UNICEF’s State of Honduran Children

[2] Source: UNICEF background information on Honduras

By Marcela Reyes

A Journey Through the Heart of Honduras

Dense foliage and lush trees part to reveal glimpses of the deep valley below as we bump violently along the unpaved, dusty road between the cities of Marcala and La Esperanza in the Adelante Foundation truck.  Climbing slowly, we weave around deep dry ravines in the road, carved out by heavy rains.  It is difficult to believe that this route is even passable during the wet season.  Yet, it is one of few roadways connecting the agricultural towns of the region with La Esperanza, the capital city of the Honduran department of Intibuca.  La Esperanza is also the central trading place for many surrounding communities and has several thriving markets.

Although it is one of poorest regions of Honduras, the fertile farmlands of Intibuca provide the bulk of the coffee, potatoes, and vegetables to the rest of the country.  It is also unique as it is the home of the indigenous Lenca culture.  Having only recently begun working with the Adelante Foundation, this is my first trip to the field.  I am accompanied by Sandra Moncada, Adelante’s Director of Education, Oscar Meija, Director of Operations, and Carla Salinas, Education Assistant, who is, as a side note, nearly 7 months pregnant and in my opinion, a very good sport on this jiggly 8 hour journey from La Ceiba.  We stop off briefly at an assembly meeting in small mountaintop village called San Jose.  The meeting is large – more than 30 women, standing room only.  The children gather at the doors, peering around each other to get a glimpse of what is taking place inside.  When the women proudly proclaim the Adelante motto, “Unity, Discipline, Hard Work, and Courage! This is our way of life.” the energetic sound spills out into the street and echoes down the cobblestone corridors of the town.

We arrive in La Esperanza at dusk.  The fading sunlight casts a lovely red hue up into the mountainside opposite.  The town is quiet, there are a few people still lingering around the market area, but most have left for home.  The air is cool and smells of pine forests and wood burning stoves.  It has been nearly 4 years since I last visited this place, but the smells and sounds are instantly familiar and nostalgic.  In November 2005, I spent a month here during my training as a Peace Corps volunteer, and the area holds a special place in my heart.

The next morning we awake early and make the 15 minute walk to the downtown Adelante office.  There is a meeting today for all the community educators in the region.  The women arrive enthusiastic, greeting their Adelante peers with kisses and talking excitedly amongst themselves.  These women are the teachers of their community assembly groups.  They are here to learned new educational charlas to take back and teach in their bi-weekly assembly meetings.  It is evident that these are the leaders: women who help inspire others.  The meeting is full of conversation, discussion, and ready participation.

In the late afternoon, I take a walk up to a hillside shrine, a small cave containing various religious relics.  It is a quiet, contemplative spot, with a panoramic view.  Looking out on the city itself, it does not appear particularly striking.  The streets and buildings are pale and dusty, there are few trees or gardens.  But it sits quietly nestled down beneath the pine forests which rise up majestically above it on all sides.  What truly lends Intibuca its charm, however, are the Lenca women.  Their cheerful headscarves and dresses in vibrant reds, blues and pinks come alive and almost seem set ablaze against the muted colors of the town.  The long narrow market draw me in with baskets and bins spilling over with the brightest, freshest vegetables I’ve ever seen.  Cool crisp heads of lettuce, green peppers, purple coffee beans, tomatoes and radishes red and ready for eating.

Leaving the scene I wander on, until the street gradually opens onto a familiar spot in the center of town.  It is the site of another popular market.  When I was here four years ago, there had been a fire which destroyed the market.  The plaza on which it stood had been laid bare.  At one time – in this very spot – I had stood among a sea of upturned faces, listening to the then presidential candidate, Mel Zelaya speak to the crowd from a temporary stage built up in front of the square.  I remember watching their faces as he promised the people reform and change, his charismatic voice booming loud and strong across the plaza.  Today, the square is again packed – this time with wooden shacks: an active, thriving marketplace where people rebuilt what once was lost and began again.

I continue on my way, turning down a narrow street where I discover the home I once lived in with a local family.  Across from the house is the headquarters of the Partido Liberal de Honduras (The Liberal Party of Honduras). The building is locked up tight, an old Micheletti bumper sticker is stuck to the door.  I look up to discover flying above the building, the party’s red and white flag.  It is dirty, tattered and torn, waving tiredly in the wind.  Given the current political situation, the scene seems melancholy but poignant.

Many things have changed since 2005, but even in the face of current battles, here in the heart of Honduras, the people are resilient.  Governments come and go, but the Lenca women and men have been turning this dark, rich soil and sustaining themselves since long before the arrival of Columbus.  They have endured the Spanish conquest and before that countless tribal battles.  They are a strong people but in the modern day they are faced with a declining culture and are in need of much support.  Here in the region of Intibuca, Adelante is working closely in Lenca communities to help provide tools and resources so they can continue to live independent in their traditional agricultural way of life.

Coming here has been a powerful experience for me.  I have felt inspired, and my eyes have been opened to the beauty that exists within people and places – even in the harshest environments, even in the day-to-day.   During my time with Adelante Foundation, I hope to make many more trips to the field offices around the country.  It is a facinating getting to know the clients, hearing and observing first hand how the foundation has helped to improve and enrich the lives of  Honduran women and their families.

By Desirae Wrathall